Andre Kertesz

Andre Kertesz was one of the photographers that I was given to study as a project in my early years of photography. At first I wasn't too happy as I thought that I wouldn't be interested in a bunch of black and white photos taken a long time ago by an old man who I have never heard of - how wrong I was!

Andre Kertesz has to be one of the most inspiring photographers I have ever had the pleasure of studying. I really enjoyed learning about his life story and found that he took his camera almost everywhere he could, including the hospital he was sent to after being injured during the war. He took great pleasure in photographing distorted bodies under the water in the recovery swimming pool. A simple concept but something that hadn't really been done at the time.

The most inspiring and interesting images Andre took, in my opinion, was of a glass bust in his window (the polaroids have been made into a book called 'view from my window'). Shortly after his wife died he was walking by a thrift store and discovered a small glass bust that reminded him of his wife. He bought and photographed this over and over claiming that the clouds and change in weather made up the face of the bust.

This link has more about the glass bust and Andre's work -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jAyLdztugo

Enjoy!